Sperm and egg generating processes in mammals are constantly subjected to stresses from physical, chemical, and biological sources that can result in problems whereby a male or female may become infertile or sub-fertile due to poor or insufficient semen or egg quality. These problems may be compounded in the cases of under or mal nourished mammals.
The treatment of sperm or egg afflictions can be quite problematic, especially in the case of humans and animals such as horses, where treatment is often directed at controlling the symptoms of the afflictions and not their causes, regardless of the stage of infertility, or sub-fertility. Improving sperm and egg quality may be significantly hampered, in the case where the mammal is under nourished or mal nourished and lacks the requisite building blocks to promote spermatogenesis or oogenesis. In these cases, medical or veterinarian assistance alone may not improve the quality and quantity of sperm.
Sperm are produced by the well known process of spermatogenesis where spermatogonia develop from primordial germ cells that migrate into the testis early in embryogenesis. In sexually mature male mammals, the spermatogonia divide to continually renew themselves, where some sperm further divide by meiosis to become primary spermatocytes, which in turn continue through meiotic division I to become secondary spermatocytes. After they complete meiotic division II, the secondary spermatocytes produce haploid spermatids that differentiate into mature sperm. Mature sperm comprise various components including a head and a tail. All of the steps in the process require the continuous input of cellular building blocks in order to adequately and correctly produce viable mature sperm.
Eggs are produced by a well known process called oogenesis. The process results in the formation of a large cell having a variety of resources for the construction of the embryo. Accordingly, oogenesis requires adequate nutrition to provide the cellular building blocks to create the equipped cells.
The basic cellular building blocks include, among other things, amino acids, carbohydrates, proteins, fats and saccharides. The present invention provides compositions having effective fertility promoting nutrients to enhance gametogenesis and the maintenance of sperm and egg cells, which ultimately promote fertility. Nutrients are required to play a role in the development and function of sperm and egg. Detailed knowledge of the role played by various nutrients or the level required for optimal development and function of sperm and egg are not well understood. Therefore, correcting key nutrient deficiency through supplementation has been problematic. The present invention overcomes these difficulties by providing compositions, mixtures, and dosage forms containing the key nutrients needed to improve fertility in mammals.
For many mammalian breeders, such as horse breeders, infertility is an aggravating problem forcing breeders to seek medical and veterinarian assistance. Such assistance may be costly and untimely with respect to the mating season. Accordingly, lower costing supplementation may alleviate the problems of infertility prior to seeking assistance.
Conventional treatments for various mammalian infertility conditions include the administration of human chorionic gonadotrophins (hCG), human menopausal gonadotrophin (hMG) (consisting of equal amounts of follicle stimulating hormone, FSH, and luteinizing hormone LH), or luteinizing hormone releasing hormone (LHRH), also known as gonadotrophin releasing hormones (GnRH). Treatment with these hormones however, is generally expensive, and does not always yield satisfactory results for certain males, such as those exhibiting idiopathic oligospermia.
An alternative medicinal treatment to the drugs described above are low cost ‘natural’ medicines such as various herbs which are typically ingested over large periods of time to form part of one's diet. Two examples of naturally occurring herbs thought to increase the human bodies' production of male hormones include ginseng and sarsaparilla. The roots of these herbs are thought to have the medicinal properties. However, it is inconclusive whether ingestion of these herbs does indeed promote spermatogenesis.
Patents of interest include U.S. Pat. No. 5,364,845 (herein incorporated by reference) which relates to a method and composition for the protection, treatment and repair of connective tissue in mammals. The composition includes glucosamine and chondroitin sulfate. The composition further includes manganese ascorbate which catalyzes the production of collagen and proteoglycans from the glucosamine and the chondroitin sulfate.
Furthermore U.S. Pat. No. 6,558,911 (herein incorporated by reference) relates to male infertility, and in particular to assays for predicting fertility in animals including human and bovines. In some embodiments, semen samples are evaluated by measuring the amount of ubiquitin in the sample, and in particular by measuring the extent of ubiquitination spermatozoa. Increased levels of ubiquitination in a sample are correlated with lower fertility.
Due to stress on sperm and egg cells from the continuously replicating nature of spermatogenesis, and the storage of egg cells, proper nourishment is essential to facilitate fertility and promote adequate amounts of viable gametes. Accordingly what is needed is a composition which alleviates, overcomes, or cures the problem of infertility and sub-fertility by ensuring that gamete generating tissues are nourished and have access to the cellular building blocks necessary for spermatogenesis, oogenesis and gamete maintenance. The compositions and methods of the present invention are applicable to males wherein the conception rate may be affected by physical, chemical, or biological stressors to the sperm or developing sperm in the target organ. Moreover, the compositions and methods of the present invention are applicable to females wherein the egg integrity may be affected by physical, chemical, or biological stressors to the egg or developing egg in the target organ.
The present invention relates generally to nutraceutical compositions and specifically to those compositions making use of glucosamine in promoting fertility. In particular, the compositions may be provided in dosage forms for treating infertile or sub-fertile mammals. The present invention provides improved compositions that require little technical expertise to use, are rapid, and may be used either as a nutritional supplement, or as a medicinal treatment of infertile or sub-fertile mammals.